Introduction
Like all grant-makers, PHF wants to know what difference its funding is making in the areas it has chosen to target. And, like other funders, we recognise that it can be far from straightforward to develop a complete or accurate picture of what has happened as a result of our funding. That’s why PHF is involved with others in the lively debates and active developments in the sector about how to assess and increase impact.
A mid-term review of the Foundation’s current strategic plan pointed to the progress made towards becoming a more strategic philanthropist and the need, in the next phase, to do more to gauge impact and capture and share learning within PHF and the organisations we support. This report is about a new approach developed in the light of that recommendation. What it provides is essentially a map of the outcomes that have come about through our grant-making over the last few years.
The questions that we set out to answer are critical ones for organisations like PHF. How can a funder that supports a large and diverse number of projects begin to assess the overall impact of its funding? Using the approach set out in this report, we are able to discover how the patterns of impact achieved match up against the Foundation’s strategic aims. This will inform our discussions about whether doing things differently – or doing different things – would improve the contribution we make to the quality of life and opportunities for the people our grantees work with.
We set out as well to understand how we might change our own ways of working to help grantees to improve their own effectiveness, which would also help PHF funding to achieve greater impact overall. We reported in 2010 on our Grantee Perception Report, which asked grantees about their experiences of working with us, and we will repeat that survey in 2013. Grantees’ views of PHF and what we have learned about their evidence will both inform the sort of support we offer to grantees.
We believe that by reporting publicly on the impact of our funding and learning from what we find, we are also putting into practice the sort of accountability and the focus on learning and outcomes that we look for in our grantees. We invite and welcome comments on the approach outlined in this report, which we offer as a contribution to thinking in the funding sector about improving and assessing impact.
The Foundation’s Strategic Plan 2006–13
Our strategic aims are:
- Enabling people to experience and enjoy the arts.
- Developing people’s education and learning.
- Integrating marginalised young people who are at times of transition.
In addition, we have three related aims:
- Advancing through research the understanding of the relationships between the arts, education and learning and social change.
- Developing the capacity of organisations and people who facilitate our strategic aims.
- Developing the Foundation itself to be an exemplar foundation, existing in perpetuity.